


before new nestlings sing

by partialconstellations



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dancing, Denial of Feelings, F/F, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Minor Alys Karstark/Sigorn of Thenn, Minor Theon Greyjoy/Robb Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29460798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partialconstellations/pseuds/partialconstellations
Summary: Sansa would be remiss if she said that she didn’t miss the dancing. Even though it was much less formal than it was when it was first conceived as a way to court, she missed the romantic aspects of it. Not that teaching Loras and Margaery the proper steps wasn’t fun, it just felt like she was missing out. She had never remained single for long at the dance, but every single one of these relationships, and any others after that, had all ended in spectacular failure. If you were being generous.
Relationships: Jeyne Poole/Sansa Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12
Collections: Wintersend 2020 & 2021





	before new nestlings sing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wastingyourarrows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastingyourarrows/gifts).



> My gift for the 2020/2021 Wintersend celebration. It's very much out of my comfort zone. Hope you enjoy!

It had been a long time since Sansa had managed to make it home for Wintersend, the holiday the North celebrated on the solstice, in remembrance of a time when the seasons were reported to be less regular, and winter lasted for years. It was supposed to celebrate the passing of the season, to celebrate life and mourn the lost at the beginning of a new year.

The celebration didn’t fall into the holiday season of the Crownlands where Sansa attended university, so she had missed it for the past three years. But now, as she stepped off the train and breathed in the crisp air, it almost immediately felt like home. “It smells like snow,” she smiled and turned around to look at the friends she had somehow talked into coming with her.

“Didn’t take you for a sap, Stark,” Loras said as he budged her out of the way. He rubbed his hands against each other in a desperate attempt to combat the creeping cold. “Bit nippy, isn’t it?”

“Get a move on, I need to get out of this miserable cold or be wearing at least three layers more.” Margaery added, and, true, she stood there with her arms wrapped around herself. “Why, exactly, are we here when we could be on a beach in the Reach?”

“Aren’t you the least bit curious about _real_ seasons?” Loras asked.

“I was, and then this nonsense happened.” She gestured towards the visible cloud of her breath. “This stupid festival better be all you have promised.”

“You’ll eat your words when you skate on a frozen lake for the first time in your life. Just keep an open mind, will you.” Sansa chided her and gestured for them to follow her. Margaery and Loras didn’t exactly seem convinced when they stepped off the plane at White Harbor and even less so when they boarded the train for Sansa’s hometown. Margaery had watched the ever-increasing masses of snow the further they went inland with first mild, then alarming, concern.

“ _Fine_.” Margaery conceded, but she didn’t sound convinced. “Please tell me we’re getting picked up at least.”

“Yes. In fact, my brother is right over there!” Sansa gestured towards Robb, who, indeed, was standing under a small, roofed area at the end of the platform, and waving excitedly at them with one hand, as if he was somehow hard to miss—them being the only people to step off the train—and him holding the leashes of two very big, very excited dogs, who looked like they could easily yank him off his feet if they wanted to.

“They look so much bigger than they did in the pictures, and they looked massive on those, too.” Sansa barely noticed the note of wonder in Margaery’s voice before she took off running to throw her arms around Lady’s neck, burying her entire face right into the scruff of her neck, while Lady happily barked a greeting at her. She only smelled a little like wet dog.

“I’ve missed you, too, Sansa,” Robb commented drily somewhere above her before he busied himself with introducing himself to Loras and Margaery.

* * *

“So. Your brother, Robb. Is he single?” Loras asked after their meeting and greeting with the entire Stark family, followed by tea and cake which stifled most of the complaining, and Sansa showed the two of them up a secondary set of stairs at the back of the house to the guest rooms.

Margaery hit him on the back of the head while he ducked it under the low ceiling as they climbed.

Loras shook his head at her. “What Renly doesn’t know won’t hurt him. His fault for not coming.”

Margaery gasped. “You don’t mean that. You _know_ his family hardly ever spends time together, so him not attending Robert’s birthday for a lark would have been just rude. And, really, you should have joined him.”

“He explicitly told me not to,” Loras replied primly. “And we’re going to lie on a beach next week, and frankly, I think I’m going to need it to thaw out.”

“If you’re going to complain for the entire week, I’m going to send you both back home immediately. You’ve both just spent an hour with hot chocolate directly in front of a fireplace, you can’t possibly be cold anymore.”

“Well, it looks like we’re being relegated to the servants’ quarters of this ridiculous house, so I’m sure I’ll be a block of ice by tomorrow morning at the latest.”

Sansa opened the door that separated the stairwell and landing, which held the doors to two bedrooms, a bathroom, a small seating area and an open fireplace with a flourish. “Any more complaints?”

Margaery grinned at her. “Nope. But I am _also_ interested in the answer to Loras’s question.”

Sansa rolled her eyes. “No, he’s not. And, anyway, I don’t think either of you delicate flowers would be able to deal with having to commute here on a regular basis to date my stupid brother. Him and his childhood best friend _finally_ admitted their feelings for each other last year. About fifteen years overdue, if you ask me.”

“Speaking of,” Robb said, stepping out of one of the bedrooms and kicking the door shut behind him. “Jeyne isn’t going to be able to stop by before we leave tomorrow. She’ll come meet us at the dance.”

“How is that a ‘speaking of’?” Sansa asked. “ _I_ haven’t been in love with my best friend for half our lives.”

“Sure you haven’t.” He didn’t sound the least bit convinced. Stashing the lighter he was holding on top of the mantle, he addressed the Tyrells. “I’ve lit both the bedrooms’ fireplaces for you. Just remember to chuck a log on there before you go to sleep, and you should have warm and toasty feet tomorrow morning.”

* * *

As she was lying in bed later that night, sleep wouldn’t come. Even though Sansa was exhausted from not just the trip and the siblings’ incessant squabbling, Robb’s words had opened a door that she had not just been keeping closed but shuttered very tightly. It would be stupid to ruin their friendship like this, she thought sensibly and decisively shut her eyes.

Except. Except it had worked for Robb and Theon, hadn’t it?

But to think that it could happen twice in one family, that both of them would be so lucky to fall in love with their best friend and have those feelings be recuperated, well, that wasn’t going to happen. No, the best thing would be to ignore it until it went away.

Or annoy Robb, it being his fault and all.

“This is your fault,” Sansa declared loudly as she threw the door to Robb’s bedroom open.

“What is?” he replied, looking up from his phone. “I thought you wanted to get an early night!”

“Yes, and then _you_ came along, talking about me having feelings for Jeyne, which is _ridiculous_.”

He looked at her with smug, knowing eyes. “Oh, is it?”

“Yes, it is,” she declared with an emphasising nod. “Now move over, if I can’t sleep, you won’t either.”

“Are you going to talk to me about your feelings for Jeyne?” He grinned at her, moving towards the wall and lifting his blanket. Sansa breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t sleeping naked as she climbed in next to him.

“No. I’m going to ignore everything you say because it’s ridiculous. I just want you to suffer like I’m suffering.”

“But you can’t actually make me stop talking to you about Jeyne.” Sansa aimed a pillow at his head, but that didn’t wipe the smirk off his face. Brothers were _the worst_.

* * *

The Wintersend celebration was held the next day throughout the day, followed by a long night, with the day time being more of a fair, with little booths set around Winterfell’s village square, where you could purchase traditional arts and crafts, but a fair amount of booths just sold hot drinks and food, which held even more of an appeal to Sansa, although Margaery looked like she was about to need a second suitcase for all the jewellery she purchased. In the evening, after dark, with the lights strung on cables run overhead turned on, the orchestra opened the dance.

Young or old, it didn’t matter, everyone joined for the opening dance, which really resembled more of a chaotic jumble, with little boys and girls standing on their parents’ or older siblings’ feet who tried their very best to follow the proper steps while holding onto excited toddlers. A lanky, teenage Rickon had to be forcefully convinced not to step on Robb’s feet “for nostalgia’s sake” and patted his older brother on the head before he left to join his group of friends.

It wasn’t until after the first dance that the small ones were carried off to bed, so their parents could return an hour later to join the _real_ celebration. Sansa would be remiss if she said that she didn’t miss the dancing. Even though it was much less formal than it was when it was first conceived as a way to court, she missed the romantic aspects of it. Not that teaching Loras and Margaery the proper steps wasn’t fun, it just felt like she was missing out. She had never remained single for long at the dance, but every single one of these relationships, and any others after that, had all ended in spectacular failure. If you were being generous.

“You know, _I_ could cut in here and see if we can’t make proper Northerners out of you yet,” Robb beamed at them as he stepped between Sansa and Loras, who had desperately tried to follow her somewhat forceful lead.

“And you need a quartet anyway to do it properly,” Theon added, clapping Margaery on the shoulder. “I’m Theon. And you’re the Southern flowers, I presume.”

“I didn’t say it in those words, but yes.” Sansa said, rolling her eyes. “This is Loras and Margaery, and this is Theon, Robb’s boyfriend.”

“See, I’m allowed to make fun. I’m not Northern either, and I managed to learn all this ridiculousness, so you can, too.”

“You moved here when you were _nine_ ,” Robb admonished him fondly. “And anyway, someone’s been looking for you, sister dear.” He stepped aside before Jeyne managed to elbow him out of her way.

“Jeyne!” Sansa cried, throwing her arms around Jeyne’s neck and squeezing tightly. Even though she returned home when she had the time off to spare, they hadn’t seen each other in over a year and messaging and talking on the phone wasn’t quite the same as being able to touch each other, enjoying the other’s physical presence. She towered over Jeyne quite a bit, so nobody could fault her if she noticed that Jeyne’s hair pleasantly smelled like lavender.

“You want to grab a drink?” Jeyne asked when Sansa let go and introductions had been taken care of.

Even though she really wanted to catch up with Jeyne, it felt wrong to abandon her guests during the very first full day they were up here. Sansa looked at Loras and Margaery between Robb and Theon. They all shook their heads. “We’ll take care of them,” Robb assured her, and Theon patted the pocket of his coat, which seemed to be bottle-shaped, in emphasis.

“I’m very sorry for not meeting you at the train,” Jeyne said quietly when they peeled off the group and weaved their way through the square to a booth selling mulled wine.

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing to be sorry for! You _and_ Robb picking us up would have been silly. And with both Lady and Grey Wind _and_ Marge’s luggage, there really wouldn’t have been any space for you anyway. Plus, I know you’ve had to work! It’s fine, really.” Sansa babbled away, without even really thinking about it. She didn’t want Jeyne to feel bad, especially not for something she had no influence over, after not having seen her for so long.

“Well, we’re here now. Your friends seem nice.” Jeyne said, as they lined into the short queue. Sigorn Thenn waved her trying to pay for their cups away with a huff, added an extra dollop of honey to Sansa’s to sweeten it even more, before handing them over with a wink. At least Sansa knew who to blame for if she woke up with a headache in the morning.

“I’m just glad to finally see you again. I’ve missed you.” Sansa repeated into the quiet that settled between them as they both blew on their steaming cups.

“I’ve missed you, too. Things haven’t really been the same without you here.” They fell quiet again, but it was a comfortable silence. If it could even be called that, with all the sounds around them, from the music being played, to the general festivities only getting started around them. Most of the evening was still ahead of them. Soon, the traditional music would be replaced by a band, when the dance would inevitably start to get rowdy.

“Want to explain what that wink from Sigorn was about?” Sansa asked, with a knot in her stomach, which was just silly, since Jeyne deserved to be happy, and it wasn’t like _Sansa_ was interested in Sigorn.

Jeyne took a small sip before she replied. “You’re very much barking up the wrong tree there. He’s been _seen_ with Alys Karstark, if you know what I mean.” And yet, she seemed to flush, but that could just be the cold combined with the hot drink.

“If you could put a break on your flirting, we’ve got to show off the flowers’ progress!” Theon interrupted, shouting at them from the middle of the square.

“Oh dear,” Jeyne said as Sansa downed her drink in response. “I see disaster in our near future.”

“No, that won’t stand.” Sansa muttered to herself. “I don’t like what Theon’s implying. I am an excellent teacher. He’s not better than me!”

“I will not be party to you starting a feud with Theon Greyjoy about your respective abilities as a dance teacher,” Jeyne tried to calm her, but also dutifully finished her own drink.

“You’re supposed to have my back!” Sansa cried and, handing their cups to someone standing near them, grabbed Jeyne’s hand, muscled their way to where Margaery was a little awkwardly being spun by Robb and almost expertly handed off to Theon, while Loras spun off entirely in the wrong direction and had to be manoeuvred back into the quartet by an Umber.

“Yes, I see you’re making excellent progress,” Sansa commented drily, taking Loras by the wrist as they passed him.

“Well, the teacher is only as good as the student,” Theon declared loftily.

“Rude,” Loras huffed.

“That is patently untrue,” Jeyne confirmed. “We need another two people,” she reminded them and started craning her neck to be able to see over the crowd for another pair to join them.

“Oi! Thenn! Karstark!” Theon shouted over her head and waved at them. Apparently, Sigorn had just finished his shift at the drinks’ stand and now him and Alys obediently followed Theon’s shout.

“Now, if you’ve found a quartet difficult before, an octet is a whole other thing. This has the same partner swap as the quartet, but between two groups of four. Robb’s cousin’s boyfriend almost gave himself a concussion once.”

“How is this supposed to make me feel better?” Margaery asked, sounding a little exasperated.

“But he has two left feet, so you, sweetheart, don’t have anything to worry about. Your brother, on the other hand …” Theon trailed off with a smug grin.

“I could be lying on a beach right now,” Loras muttered under his breath.

“It’s all just for fun,” Robb assured them. “They won’t execute you if you do it wrong. Not anymore, at least.”

“Anyway, you just watch, Stark, I’ll show you what a good teacher can do, even if one of the students has two left feet, while you two lovebirds have been off whispering sweet nothings at each other.”

Theon somehow still knew how to press all her buttons, which was only a little annoying but quite alarming. Why would he start teasing her and Jeyne about flirting? She chanced a look at Jeyne who looked like she was close to murdering Theon.

“Right, we’ll just join Sansa and Jeyne,” Sigorn interrupted. “Because Sansa looks like she’s about two seconds away from strangling you, Greyjoy.”

“And so does Jeyne,” Alys added helpfully.

“There are worse ways to go,” Theon shrugged, but dutifully took Loras’s hand again, while waiting for the moment to join back in.

Sansa had never danced the man’s steps before, but she figured it out pretty quickly, especially since she tended to lead anyway, and usually actively had to stop herself from doing so. And Jeyne was very easy to lead.

It definitely wasn’t jealousy that panged inside Sansa’s stomach as she handed Jeyne off to Sigorn and faced Alys herself, easily falling into the step pattern with her. “You look good together,” Alys said. “It’s nice to see Jeyne happy. Or you, but I haven’t seen as much of you in the past couple of years.”

“I’m happy for you and Sigorn,” Sansa replied, quickly trying to change the topic, leading Alys easily through the steps. “Are you going to jump the bonfire together tomorrow?”

Alys smirked at her, as though she was just too aware what Sansa was doing. Sansa wished she knew what everybody was on about since she got back. First Theon, now this. “Maybe. We haven’t talked about it yet.”

The next swap came up before they could discuss things further, and while she danced with Loras, she was mostly concerned with getting him to face the right way, so she didn’t really have time to think things through further. But as she finally twirled Loras back to Theon, and got Jeyne back in exchange, her hands seemed to fit into hers much better than anyone else’s. Jeyne smiled up at her and stepped closer than was strictly necessary. If Sansa’s heart sped up, well, that was just the dancing, wasn’t it?

When she looked up, she caught a glimpse of Theon smirking at her, so she didn’t and instead focused only on Jeyne for the rest of the dance. She didn’t have feelings for her best friend, that would be silly. And extremely unfortunate, so she put it out of her mind. But the feeling rankled at her and didn’t entirely go away for the rest of the night, even when they left the dancefloor and settled down by a fire with more drinks with the rest of the group.

Sansa comfortably leaned into Jeyne and when Theon smugly asked her about it (before being elbowed by Robb), she comfortably claimed that she wasn’t used to the cold anymore. In hindsight, that was a mistake, because Theon kept bullying her for her Southern sensibilities instead.

“Theon,” Jeyne said pleasantly, “if you don’t shut up, I will _make_ you shut you up.”

“Then make me,” he smirked at her.

“Nobody will ever find the body,” Sansa added, throwing an arm around Jeyne and pulling her closer. Jeyne shot a mildly dirty look in Theon’s direction.

“Well, you know what they say: The couple that hides the body together, stays together,” Margaery added, taking a sip of her wine.

“Why are you on _his_ side?”

“Because I’m not blind, darling.” Theon raised his cup in toast to Margaery and they exchanged a conspiratorial look.

“Right, we’re leaving. You’re all being ridiculous.” Sansa declared and stormed off, closely followed by Jeyne.

“Use protection!” Theon yelled after them, followed by a hissed “ _Theon_!” from Robb. “I meant the cold! _Obviously._ ”

Sansa weaved her way through the crowd blindly, past a couple of teenagers making out, one familiarly redheaded, which she didn’t have time to be concerned about. Before she knew it, she found herself on the lantern-lit path to the old godswood, where the night-time celebrations would be taking place. The bonfire was being prepared by the fire department, to ensure it burned safely without setting the godswood on fire and quickly enough for the jump around dawn.

Sansa waved at Jon as they passed and then followed Jeyne as she took the lead deeper into the woods, without straying too much from the strategically placed fires to keep people warm and the lights in the trees.

“Where are you going?” Sansa called, perhaps a little more panicked than she expected.

Jeyne turned around and looked like she was about to say something, but instead, she closed the distance between them in one big step, got on the tips of her toes and kissed her.

Oh.

It was quick, over as soon as it began. Jeyne stepped back and inhaled deeply, without breaking their eye contact. “I don’t know about you, but if the last year of not seeing you has taught me anything, it’s that I hated it and I’ve missed you, and that I’ve wanted to do that for a very, very long time.” It all seemed to come tumbling out in one single breath. “And if you don’t want to do that again, then I’m sorry, and I won’t do it again.”

“… did you tell Theon about, well, _this_?” Sansa asked, stupidly, trying to make her brain catch up with her heart, which seemed to beat at double the pace it was supposed to.

Jeyne let out a huff and crossed her arms in front of her, putting a wall between themselves. “Yes, I asked him when and how he knew about Robb. … is that all you have to say? About … us?” Her voice broke.

“No, I’m. I’m sorry, it’s just. A lot.” It was all coming out wrong, Sansa knew that. It all came out wrong, but she couldn’t stop herself. Couldn’t stop and _think_.

Jeyne, half-turning away, nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry. It was stupid.” She turned, stepping out of light. “I’ll just. I’m going to go. See you later.”

Reaching for her, Sansa reached for her shoulder. “No, stop.”

A heavy sob bubbled up, before Jeyne said, in a shaky voice, “Believe me, I’d like to.”

“Don’t cry,” Sansa said quietly, for lack of something better to say, to calm her down. Before Jeyne could say more, she ducked her head and kissed Jeyne. They were quickly interrupted by a hiccup, but after that, there was no more stopping them.

She felt like she had been a woman drowning at sea and Jeyne was her first gulp of fresh water for who knew how long. When they finally parted, Jeyne was beaming up at her. “That was nice.”

“That’s an understatement,” Sansa replied, smiling. “I’m sorry for being stupid.”

“Well, I’m sure I was being stupid, too.”

“I can’t believe you asked _Theon Greyjoy_ for relationship advice.”

“Well, asking Robb about being in love with his sister seemed even more stupid.”

“That’s true, he probably would have had a fit.”

“Well, turns out, he knew as well, without me having to say anything.”

After that, they didn’t do much talking, only basking in each other’s presence by the fire, interrupted by brief bouts of kissing, followed by giggles at how natural it felt, about how long it had taken them to get to this point.

As the hour grew later and later, the godswood filled with more and more people, marking the beginning of the second part of the celebration, to metaphorically give the dead of the last year to the fire, and to be capped off with the bonfire jump to celebrate life and the living at dawn.

Both Sansa and Jeyne stared into the ambers of the small fire they had stood at in silence for a while. One of them should have fed it a while ago lest it die, but neither of them had felt the urge to move. Jeyne nudged Sansa’s elbow with her own. Her voice sounded thin and jittery when she spoke up. “Sansa, would you jump with me?”

 _Oh._ She’d always wanted to jump, but that had never seemed like something she could do with her previous partners. It was the only thing that seemed forbidden, somehow. Even though all the other traditions weren’t really too serious anymore, the bonfire jump was still something serious, something the community took note of. According to Rickon, more than a few heads had tilted when Robb and Theon had jumped last year.

It was completely mad, and yet, it felt right when she said yes. Jeyne’s face broke into a wide, beaming smile and they kissed one last time before they joined hands and went to join the festivities.


End file.
